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Friday, February 8, 2008

PR = Patient Rendezvousing

Well, by definition it means public relations, but I think public relations is a long term rendezvous with patience. Patience while you wait for someone to agree to move ahead with public relations strategy. Patience while you get press materials together so you can actually reach out to the press. Patience while you try and try again to make contact with members of the press. Patience while you wait to hear back from them. Patience while you wait to watch the fruit of your efforts finally reap the benefits. And they do, and when they do it is magnificent. And they will continue to do so long after the work is complete.

I understand this, but unless a client has had experience with full blown public relations efforts before, they do not grasp the concept of public relations being a rendezvous with patience. This is seriously the biggest stress in being a public relations professional, or at least in my experience. And, I wouldn't even consider patience to be one of my personal strengths. I guess that's because I practice it in all aspects of my career every day.

I must give this example before I close this entry to help clarify the long term fact of PR: When I worked at an agency I handled PR for the Woodstock Inn & Resort from 2002-2004. Just two weeks ago, in the start of 2008 - FOUR years after I stopped communicating with the press about the Woodstock Inn & Resort, I received a clipping in the mail of a four page romantic winter getaway article I worked with a writer on that just got picked up by several daily newspapers and ran in their travel sections. This exemplifies the meaning of patient rendezvousing.